One of the most iconic television shows of all time, as well as one of the most quoted properties in pop culture history, The Simpsons has made hundreds of jokes that we all know, remember, and reference on a daily basis. Often times, these jokes revolve around extremely absurd concepts that could only happen in a cartoon or a satire – according to the writers at the time. Sometimes, these jokes underestimate just how low humanity (and often, America) can go. The Simpsons predictions listed here all came true!
Here's a collection of hilarious Simpsons jokes that really ended up being true, happening or being repeated elsewhere. There are some crazy things The Simpsons predicted, so read on to find out what!
15 Simpsons Jokes That Actually Came True,
Scotchtoberfest
The Joke: Principal Skinner tries to set Bart up to get in trouble, so he concocts something called "Scotchtoberfest," which allows him to control an entire event in which he knows Bart won't be able to resist pranking Groundskeeper Willie. Skinner attempts to catch Bart in act.
What Actually Happened: Vintage Wine & Spirits Co. A wine, beer, spirits, cigar, and wine accessory specialty shop located in West Des Moines, Iowa created a real Scotchtoberfest held every Saturday in October.
Flaming Moe
The Joke: Homer tells the local tavern owner Moe about a secret cocktail that includes cough medicine and fire that he calls a "Flaming Homer."
Moe steals the recipe and renames the drink the "Flaming Moe," and begins selling it at his tavern, betraying Homer in the process. The drink is a success and Moe becomes famous, even Aerosmith drops by to perform at his place!
What Actually Happened: Andy Heidel, the owner of a bar in Prospect Heights, NY called The Way Station, just happened to have a bottle of Robitussin behind the bar when someone brought up the Flaming Moe. Not sure why you would have cough medicine behind a bar, but whatever. He grabbed the 'tussin and mixed it with Pernod, Jagermeister and a Bacardi 151 floater and set it on fire. He and his friends got shmammered and the real-life Flaming Moe was born.
The Good Morning Burger
The Joke:
In the Simpsons, the Good Morning Burger was 18 ounces of sizzling ground beef soaked in rich creamery butter, topped off with bacon, ham, and a fried egg.
This was before all fast food restaurants started carrying a regular menu of heart-attacks every morning before 10:30AM, so it really worked as a satire of how horrible fast food is for you.
Before the "Baconator," a Sourdough Jack, or even a triple cheeseburger were as bad as things got.
The Good Morning Burger seemed so ridiculous and far off that it could never really happen.
Until...
Another good example of how far things have gotten in fast food are, of course, the KFC Double Down and their "failure bowls" (as comedian Patton Oswalt calls them in this bit).
Stolen Sugar Truck
The Joke:
Lisa begins to feel threatened by Allison, a new student, because she is smarter, younger, and a better saxophone player than she is.
Their rivalry reaches a climax at the school's diorama contest where Lisa plans to sabotage Allison's entry. The episode's subplot sees Homer steal a large pile of sugar from a crashed truck, and begin selling it door-to-door. He keeps it in the back yard and it eventually melts from the rain.
What Actually Happened: Someone actually stole a freaking sugar truck.
In 2009, two kids were arrested by police in India for stealing a sugar truck from a person actually in charge of delivering the sugar. The kids were actually in charge of cleaning the truck and took it while it was parked at the cleaner/boss's house.
No word on whether or not they planned to sell it door to door.
Itchy and Scratchy's Bloody Billboard
The Joke: When The "Itchy and Scratchy Movie" premiered in The Simpsons, they advertised with a billboard that sprayed blood when Itchy hit Scratchy over the head with a sledgehammer, meant to poke fun at the overtness of not only violence in emerging popular media, but in even its advertising.
What Actually Happened:
New Zealand was super excited about the TV premier of Kill Bill, so they borrowed the idea from "The Simpsons" in a way that actually may have escaped the creators of the controversial Kill Bill billboard.
In an homage to Kill Bill's gore, the billboard sprayed "blood" across the wall, street and cars.
Just like the advertising for "The Itchy and Scratchy Movie."
Bengt Holmström Wins the Nobel Prize
The Joke: In the Season 22 premiere, Milhouse and Lisa participated in a who-will-win-the-Nobel-Prize betting pool. For Economics, Milhouse, who lost to Martin, selected Bengt Holmström.
What Actually Happened: In 2016, Bengt Holmström of MIT and Oliver Hart of Harvard were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics "for work on contact theory and how to evaluate whether things should be government-run or privately owned."
There's Very Little Meat In These Gym Mats
The Joke: As seen in the video above, Lunch Lady Doris is seen throwing gym mats into a meat grinder in order to prepare the school lunch for the day.
Anyone who's ever had a public school lunch knows how completely inedible they can be, and some of the wet, warm, questionable objects on your styrofoam, sectioned-off tray do seem like they have hazardous chemicals as their base...but gym mats?
That's unheard of, that would never happen, right?
What Actually Happened: It turns out that the bread used in the McDonald's McRib actually contains an ingredient (banned in some parts of Europe) that is used to keep gym mats sponge-y.
Time Magazine's Healthland blog ran a story about the McRib and its ingredients. It identified Azodicarbonamide as one ingredient found in the sandwich's bun and apparently, it is most commonly used in the manufacturing of foam gym mats and the soles of shoes.
The blog also noted that the 70 ingredients of the McRib, including Azodicarbonamide, exist in very small quantities and will almost certainly leave anyone eating a McRib unharmed. Subway was also found to be using the chemical in its bread, too.
Still, Azodicarbonamide is a substance banned in Europe, and strictly regulated by the FDA.
Looks like the Doris joke really wasn't that far off.
My Retirement Grease!!!!!
The Joke: In the episode "In Lard Of The Dance," Homer discovers he can make money by stealing and reselling grease found in the back of Springfield Elementary's kitchen. They even build a contraption so that they can steal the maximum amount of grease in their car.
They eventually give up after a few encounters with Groundskeeper Willie and the Springfield Grease Company. Bart and Homer barely escape an angry, greased-up Willie while trying to make it home-free with their glorious, profit-garnering grease in tow.
What Actually Happened: In November of 2011, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that thieves had stolen at least $2,000 worth of grease from the privately-owned restaurant The St. Louis Wing Co. since April.
"It's a big deal. There's a huge underground out there for this stuff," owner Bobby Thessler said. "Others have said that this is like the new copper... These thieves are getting more sophisticated..."
When he called the police on these thieves, they spotted three teenagers taking grease from the back of Tessler's restaurant, as well as others on that same block. The man uses about 60 to 70 pounds of grease every week, so saving money by selling it has always been a way to help break even. A rendering company would have paid the owner of the company multiple thousands of dollars for used cooking grease.11
I Was Elected To Lead Not To Read
The Joke: This was a dig at Governor Schwarzenegger from The Simpson's Movie, saying he was too dumb to be a Government official.
The line "I was elected to lead, not read," was such a ridiculous statement because an elected official's entire job is reading long, difficult legislation, making sense of it, then deliberating.
What Actually Happened: In the 2012 GOP race there was a man by the name of Herman Cain, and he ran on the slogan "We need a leader, not a reader."
So yeah, that almost happened.
What does that slogan even mean? You need to read and be at least somewhat of an intellectual to run a country, that's why that joke in The Simpsons is so fun and why in the real world it's just so tragic.
It Tastes Like Grandma!!
The Joke: Inspired by a Zorro movie, Homer begins slapping people with a glove and challenging them to duels.
When a real Southern gentleman accepts Homer's request for a duel, the Simpsons run off to the old farm Homer lived on with his parents and breed a dangerously addictive but successful tobacco/tomato hybrid called "tomacco."
What Actually Happened: Homer’s "tomacco" plant became a reality when Rob Baur, a senior operations analyst at an Oregon sewage treatment plant, created it in his house.
He grafted together a tobacco root with a tomato plant to create a real-life tomacco, without even enlisting the aid of radioactive material.
To date, no nearby farm animals have gone berserk and articulated their tomacco desire through speech yet. YET.